Hey,
I'm new to this thread.
Haven't read it all,
but I wonder about some of the claims to overclock the RPi to max settings to run some of these emulations.

GB, and GBA (GBC) versions run at 8 and 16bit, I believe.
Snes runs at 32bit.
Without trying it, I have the impression that they should run fine on the stock Pi CPU speed.
If they don't, then there must be some more efficient code somewhere, or some way to optimize the code.

I remember running NES, SNES, and GB/GBC/GBA games fine on a 630Mhz x86 processor (windows XP), at 640x480pix, but needed 700Mhz to run them at 800x600 pix (probably the CPU would have been fine at 630MHZ, but I needed faster Vram).

ProDigit wrote:I remember running NES, SNES, and GB/GBC/GBA games fine on a 630Mhz x86 processor (windows XP), at 640x480pix, but needed 700Mhz to run them at 800x600 pix (probably the CPU would have been fine at 630MHZ, but I needed faster Vram).

With Processor design its not Fz that governs power, just quatifying how fast the Chip is resonating and IPS/FLOPS ratings (Instructions Per Second/Floating Point Operations Per Second) can also be misleading*, as such, making comparisons between different CPU's ARM/X86/Power PC/ Cell etc. is pretty much pointless! lol I recall in the early days of the Pi (before it was officially allowed) many of us 'Early Adopters' were purposely O/C’ing having a discussion with one of the Engineers here he stated that it may cause the Pi to fail one or two days early if the Hardware was run PERMANENTLY for 20 YEARS! Which I guess was one of the reasons it was then 'Officially' allowed. Using the Pi's Menu Settings O/C's is accommodated only when required (unless you specifically specify this option) and I have found no issues with the five iterations of Hardware owned thus far, WITHOUT any additional cooling required. But I digress, the point is some Emulators will run effectively with no overclocking, but as the designers allow it without validating your Warranty why not use it?

* Nobody would argue that the Intellivision and ColecoVision are far more advanced than the Atari VCS/2600, however, in some instances; it could render Graphics that would be IMPOSSIBLE on those Systems due to its architecture!

Thanks! Also, take a look at Happi Game Center. It's another emulation image that is designed specially with the Pi2 in mind. It can emulate a number of systems previously not possible(3DO, Saturn, Jaguar, PSP, Virtual Boy). It also has integrated Raspbian and Kodi. The creator plans to add Dreamcast and Sega Naomi(Arcade Board from the early 2000s, ran Crazy Taxi) support soon.

Please take a look, the owner's name is erwan jestin(at least that's the channel name) and tell me what you think.

Happi Game Center is a retropie fork where the developper closed sources, the previous version i tried also had copyright issues (bios files were included). 3DO, Saturn, Jaguar, PSP and Virtual Boy on Happi Game Center are standard libretro cores running slowly on 99% games (i suppose you won't notice the slowdown on a few very static games), you can build those cores on any rpi distro.

avinashlego wrote:Sorry BarbuDreadMon, not too much into coding and tech, so could you please simplify the language?

Thanks so much

There is no coding and tech in what i wrote, i just warned happi game center is/was in violation of copyrights and bring nothing new (no 3DO, Saturn, Jaguar, PSP and Virtual Boy emulation at normal speed).

Works really fine (apart some crash of the "no more developed" Advanced Launcher ).
But Mezo is no more active, and his retroarch.start code need a fix.
I hope that here, we can find help from the largest and iperactive Raspberry community.

#!/bin/sh
################################################################################
# This file is part of OpenELEC - http://www.openelec.tv
# Copyright (C) 2009-2014 Stephan Raue ([email protected])
#
# OpenELEC is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# OpenELEC is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with OpenELEC. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
################################################################################
. /etc/profile
oe_setup_addon emulator.tools.retroarch
RETROARCH_CONFIG_DIR="$ADDON_HOME/config"
RETROARCH_CONFIG_FILE="$RETROARCH_CONFIG_DIR/retroarch.cfg"
RETROARCH_SAVEFILES_DIR="$ADDON_HOME/savefiles"
RETROARCH_SYSTEM_DIR="$ADDON_HOME/system"
chmod a+x $ADDON_DIR/bin/*
if [ ! -f "$RETROARCH_CONFIG_FILE" ]; then
mkdir -p $RETROARCH_CONFIG_DIR
if [ -f $ADDON_DIR/config/retroarch.cfg ]; then
cp $ADDON_DIR/config/retroarch.cfg $RETROARCH_CONFIG_FILE
fi
fi
if [ ! -f "$RETROARCH_SAVEFILES_DIR" ]; then
mkdir -p $RETROARCH_SAVEFILES_DIR
fi
if [ ! -f "$RETROARCH_SYSTEM_DIR" ]; then
mkdir -p $RETROARCH_SYSTEM_DIR
fi
systemctl stop kodi
modprobe snd_bcm2835
$ADDON_DIR/bin/retroarch -c $RETROARCH_CONFIG_FILE -L $ADDON_DIR/lib/libretro/$1_libretro.so "$2"
rmmod snd_bcm2835
systemctl start kodi

The issue: if we activate in Kodi the "shutdown function after a given period of inactivity" (Setting->System->Power saving), the time setted here freezes retroarch at reach the preset time.
If we set 5 minutes, after 5 minutes of playing in Retroarch the video freezes (and so on with any other value of time).
Seems that Openlec doesn't reveal the retroarch activity, so stop all after the setted time.
Please, someone could help us with a code string or a script?
Thanks a lot

For amiga emulation, I think this thread needs some cleaning since it refer to some old uae not more maintained...
Moreover uae4arm is integrated in retropie and not listed in this thread, so people are using wrong thread when asking for questions

Chips
Agreed, it's not always easy to keep up with the rapid changes of Pi Emulation! Do you have a Thread Link/Web Link for uae4arm?

EDIT: Found it, will Update the Emulation Thread later Today...EDIT2: WOW! Nice! I have tested the Binary and it seems not to put a foot wrong where as previous Emulators did, even the final 'HAM' Image at the end of the 'Shadow of the Beast' loading screen shows no artifacts/color issues. Best of all the GUI will be familiar to WinUAE users! Will add to the Emulation Thread shortly.

Maybe you should include Lakka in the list? (Maybe I have missed it?) Lakka is based on OpenELEC and is like recalbox, a dedicated system for emulation. It supports more hardware than the raspberry pi. One important thing is that it is using the RetroArch GUI, and I think they are working together with RetroArch. Maybe check it out, and include it as an alternative in the first post?

welshy wrote:Gronis
Correct! I don't think its on the SD Card list. I will check it out when time is available and add in the next few days, thanks! I dont catch Everything! lol

No problem! I know how it is when starting out something, and then you have to maintain it Just take your time Lakka is still a very young project, but since they work together with retroarch, I think it might be good to mention it